Heart Beat
by Little Moose
Summary: Part 2/5. Athea is settling down in her new school and getting along with her friends. Tragedy will strike when she's called out, she ends up injured, but 004 is there to save the day. What happeneds when she hums a sweet and simple tune. 004xOC


Heartbeat

Cyborg 009

One Shot…sort of.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Cyborg 009. **

A/N: This is like chapter two to "When You're Gone". Kind of like a chronicle. By the way I wrote this in three days, so you guys who begged me to update you are very welcome! I LOVE YOU!

The train started rocking as it began to speed towards its next destination. My nerves came to a halt when I realized I was on the right one. Other girls from my new school glanced at me out of the corner of their eye, which made me smile. At least I can still turn heads. Although, I wish I was back home getting to know the others.

I have only been in Japan for a month getting use to my throat and the others. Last week Professor Gilmore enrolled me in the Fujisaki High school, saying that a girl my age should be in school. It would only be for this year and my new family agreed so I didn't have a choice. The only thing is that I haven't been in school for 76 years so I'm a little nervous.

A tap on my shoulder landed me in the here and now and I notice that the girls from before have circled me.

I smile. "Hi."

"You're new, aren't you? The school doesn't allow that color of hair." The snooty one says.

I grabbed a strand of my reddish brown hair. "It's my natural color though."

"Uh huh that's what they all say." She spoke and rolled her eyes

I drifted off to the conversation I had with 00-Albert a couple of days ago.

"_**If anyone questions your hair just say you're half American or German."**_

"I'm half German." I finished, which is true, and the girls seem taken back with this.

"That explains your fair complexion and blue eyes!" They went on and on until our train came to a stop and it was our turn to get off. The girls left me alone, finally, and I walked to school by myself. Thankfully Franny, Joe and Albert took this route with me so I would know where I'm going. I enter the school grounds and immediately went to my shoe locker, switched out my shoes, and went straight to the faculty room. There, my homeroom teacher went on and on about my hair—I say I'm half German and he drops it—and about other school rules. We walk to homeroom, I wait for him to call me and once he does I give my small introduction and take my seat.

Classes went on forever, but we are given ten minutes breaks in between and in those minutes my classmates swarm me with questions. I answer them whole heartedly and we go back to our class. During lunch I'm asked to sit with a group, I hesitate at first, but in the end I end up joining them.

"So, how come you transferred with only five months until we graduate?" Mizuki asked.

I reply sweetly, "Family complications."

"Oh yea, what happened?" Suzuki, Mizuki's older twin sister, asked.

While I took a sip of my tea I think of an answer. "My parents are getting a divorced and I was starting to get teased at school because of it. I told them it wasn't a big deal and that I can stand it, but they forced me to move in with my grandpa and his family and attend here."

"Wow talk about drama! Why are they getting divorced?" Naomi asks laying her head on her propped up arms.

"Naomi, that is none of your business!" Mizuki shouts.

"Yea would you want her to pry into her life?" Toshi asks and winks in my direction. I smile as I'm grateful that they stopped her prodding.

After lunch classes resume and I'm just dying to go home. Finally the bell rings and I leave in a hurry. However, Toshi and the others catch me at my shoe locker.

"Wow you are quick. You should join the track team." Mizuki says.

I shack my head. "No thanks." As I'm about to head towards the door Toshi speaks up.

"Do you wanna hang out with us? We're going to a restaurant after we do some shopping for the school trip." The four of them look at me with puppy dog eyes and I can't refuse them.

"Let me call my Grandpa and ask first." I mentally laughed at calling Professor Gilmore grandpa while I dialed the house.

Franny answered with her sweet voice. "Hello?"

"Hey is it okay if I hang out with some friends?" I ask hoping she says no.

"It's great that you made friends on your first day Athea go ahead and have some fun. Be sure to be home for dinner though." She says and I'm kind of glad that I don't have to eat with them.

I look back at my new friends and smile. "Thanks." I hang up, sigh and turn towards them. "I can hang out, but I can't go to the restaurant."

"Aww that sucks, but it can't be helped." Toshi says looking a bit depressed.

Three hours later of shopping and tomfoolery I drop them off at the restaurant. However, I notice that it's Chang's restaurant and right when I'm about to say something GB walks out with food.

"Hey there Athea." He says surprised to see me. "Franny said that you would be out with some friends, but I didn't think I would see you."

"Athea, who is this guy?" Toshi asks getting defensive.

"This is a friend of my grandpa." I look at GB with begging eyes.

"Ah yes. Professor Gilmore was my science teacher back when I was in college and it just so happens that I'm friends with his son." By son I'm hoping he means 009.

"I take it that's our dinner?" I ask pointing to the sacks of food and he nods. "Well I better help him get this home before it gets cold. I'll see you guys tomorrow." Before I can leave my new found friends each give me a hug goodbye.

"Look who I bumped into on the way home!" GB shouted as we entered the house. Everyone looked up and welcomed us home. Albert walked over and relieved me of my sacks and says I can go upstairs and change, but I decline.

"I wanna eat first. Walking around Shi-buy-a?" He nods at my pronunciation, "for three hours has left me starving."

"I don't blame you." He said and then touched his metal pointer finger to my nose, "but trust me on this, after you take a bath and change you'll feel better." He nudges me upstairs and I give in to his orders. I walk into the bathroom that Franny and I share with the bathtub all ready filled with hot water. After soaking in the tub for ten minutes, changing into shorts and a t-shirt three sizes too big for me, and walking into the dining room the Chinese aroma made my stomach growl. I took a seat next to Albert who was smirking his happy butt off.

"Don't you look relaxed?" His voice dripped with sarcasm and it annoyed me.

"Oh shut up." I nudge him in the arm as I take a drink of whatever is in my cup.

After dinner the family goes their separate ways among the house. My school bag is still sitting next to the front door and instead of doing my homework in my room I go to the sitting area and prop myself on the floor.

When Albert comes in with a cup of coffee and the newspaper I have papers everywhere, but in neat piles, and my five notebooks are open. I knew that he walked in, but I didn't sense him leave and come back again. The next thing I know there's a small tray of with coffee and crackers being placed in the only free space on the table. I looked over my shoulder to see Albert has settled himself on the couch, sipping his coffee and reading the paper. I take a cracker, dip it into my coffee and take a bite. We sat in silence until the clock chimed, telling us that it was ten o'clock and I slammed all of books shut.

I stretched as I said, "Ich endlich fertig bin, ich danke den Göttern."

Albert laughs and I glare up at him.

"What, it's what I used to say when I lived back home. It was a thing Anna and I had..."

His laughter stopped. "I'm sorry. I'm just not used to hearing anyone speak German, besides me."

"Yea well, you can thank my Oma for that. She and my Opa were German natives that moved to the United States in search of freedom." I replied as I put my homework and books in my school bag. I joined Albert on the couch after everything was put away.

"That's fascinating." Albert said nodding his head, "so then you're German on you're…"

"Mother's side of the family, I'm half Irish from my father's side." Albert remembered the story I told about how my parents met.

"What happened to your mom, if you don't mind me asking?" He asked.

"Lets just she wasn't sane after my father died." I could feel the lump in my throat wanting to escape and Albert's normal hand grasping mine only made it worse.

"What did she do?" He asked softly.

"It's what she didn't do. She wasn't my mother. Every hour, from the time she woke to the time she passed out, she drank. When I tried to take a bottle away from her she'd lash out and call me worthless names, but I knew it was only because she missed my father." I didn't realize it, but when the tears started flowing Albert's arm was bringing me into his chest. "The only outlet I had was my music and Anna."

"Shh." My head lay against his chest while he skimmed through my hair, "we've all been there, we've all lost someone dear to us, but what's important is that you let us be there for you when you feel like this."

After awhile Athea feel asleep with Albert holding her still in his arms. Jet and Professor Gilmore walked in and questioned him with suspicious looks.

"She's a little young for you, isn't she?" Jet asked.

Alert blushed. "She fell asleep okay, get off my back!"

"I would, but your front is kind of busy." Jet teased, making Albert's face turn red as a tomato.

The next morning Athea was wondering why Jet was teasing Albert all of a sudden. "Be careful Athea, the pervert might take advantage of you." Jet smirked evilly.

"What's he talking about?" Athea asked looking over in Albert's direction, while everyone else ignored them so they could eat their breakfast.

"Just ignore him, okay. He's not using the space between his ears properly." Albert said trying to ignore Jet's antics.

A month of school passed and Athea had a handle of everything. She was able to balance her school life, hanging out with her friends and her new family with ease. Mizuki, Naomi, Toshi and Suzuki have invited her to hang out with them everyday after school and on Sundays and even though she would rather stay home, Franny pushes her out the door saying, "It's good to go out in the world and socialize."

While out shopping Athea kept looking over her shoulder every few minutes, her friends didn't notice until she had actually stopped in the middle of traffic. She ignored the horns and yelling drivers and looked for the eyes that were following her. It wasn't until she felt her body forcefully move that she realized she was almost hit by a car. She looked up and saw Albert holding her and staring worriedly down at her, but that worry turned into anger.

"You can't just stand in the middle of the road like that, you could've been killed!" He yelled making her wince. "Come on Athea, what were you thinking?"

"Would you lay off, so I spaced for a minute, what's the problem?" She yelled back yanking her arm out of his hand. "And what are you doing here? Are you following me?"

"No I'm running an errand for Chang!" He yelled.

"Um…do you two need a moment?" Mizuki asked.

Athea smiled at her friends. "No we're done." She whipped her head around and glared at Albert. "We can finish this later."

Albert was sitting on the stairs when Athea walked through the door. Professor Gilmore, Joe and Franny joined them in the entrance while the two glares at each other.

"So…" Athea with sarcasm.

"What were you thinking?" Albert asked, "You could've gotten yourself killed."

"I only spaced for a minute—."

"More like five minutes, those drivers were ready to run you over!" Albert yelled.

"And you saved my life and I thank you for that!" Athea snapped, "But I didn't appreciate you yelling at me in public, you jerk!"

Out of no where Albert slapped her.

"004!" All three shouted in unison.

"Would you listen to yourself, this isn't the girl we rescued from Black Ghost!" Albert shouted. Athea rubbed her cheek as she glared at him.

"You're a jerk." Athea hissed and then went upstairs.

A few seconds later Athea's door slammed shut and all glares were on Albert.

"What?" He asked.

"Athea may have been out of line, but that didn't give you the right to slap her." Franny yelled and then went up the stairs. Albert followed Joe and Professor Gilmore into the living room and waited for Franny to come down. When she did she still looked angry and glared at Albert.

"She refuses to answer and unlock her door; you need to go and apologizing for slapping her." Franny demanded pointing to the stairs. Albert looked at his human hand and saw how red it was turning; he clenched it into a fist and stood. Franny sighed, "Thank you 004."

Albert stood in front of Athea's door and took a deep breath before knocking. When there wasn't an answer he knocked again, but with no answer.

"Athea, I know you're in there." He said dryly. "You don't have to talk okay? Just hear me out for a minute…please?"

There was still no answer.

"Athea I'm starting to get angry." Albert said as he jiggled the door knob and then the door opened. He opened it slowly, "Athea?" With the door all the way opened he saw no sign of Athea, but her window was all the way up with the wind carrying her drapes. He rushed down the hall and skipped the stairs. "Athea is gone!"

"But how, we didn't sense her leaving!" Franny said.

"No we were too busy arguing." Albert said and then he turned to Franny, "can you do a quick sweep to find her. Joe, contact 006 and the others and tell them to keep an eye out for her."

Albert ran through the city looking at every hang out Athea would go to, questioning every shop keep that she's met—until Franny contacted him telepathically.

_/ I've found her 004. /_

/That's great, where is she? /

_/She's at the docks, but she isn't moving. Hurry 004. /_

"Dammit."

Arriving at the docks Albert searched through every crate and every alley, but to no avail. He gave up hope until he made out her silhouette lying on the ground. "Oh please no, Athea!" Nightmares of his wife dying flooded into mind. He rushed over to her body and gently rolled her over, checking her pulse he felt relieved when he found it beating slowly. He held her upper body in his arms and moved strands of hair out of her face.

"Hey Athea, come on, wake up." He gently tapped her face with is metallic hand, but she didn't open her eyes. It was then that he felt a warm liquid on his human hand. Replacing that hand with the metallic one he brought it up to show dark red blood dripping off the edge. "What in the—Athea, come on, you need to wake up."

Still, nothing happened.

He huffed and then glanced at Athea's pale olive tone face. He traced her long eye lashes and full red lips with is steel blue eyes. A warm feeling came over his heart, but at the same time it ached. "Athea…look…I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. I'm sorry for yelling at you, I'm sorry for slapping you." He caressed her cheek with his fingers; he lifted her head so that he could look at her complete face and held it there with his shoulder. He grabbed her hand, kissed her palm and placed it on the side of his face. "Just please be okay. I—." He chocked on his words, "I've only known you for a few months, but I love you Athea. I don't want you to leave." He buried his face in her neck and hoped that Hilda would forgive him for falling in love again.

"Apology accepted." His head shot up and huge smile spawned on his face when Athea's deep blue eyes opened. He was too happy for words so instead he hugged her until she winced in pain. Albert helped her up and steadied herself as her head throbbed, they stared at each other for a minute until Albert inched in closer, but blinding headlights stopped him.

"004, Athea, are you all right?" Joe yelled as he and the others joined them.

"I'm fine, but I have a strange feeling that I have a lot of explaining to do." She replied looking up at Albert.

He smiled and laughed. "That can wait until we get home."

As soon as they arrived home Professor Gilmore confirmed that Athea has a concussion and should stay home tomorrow.

"I'll notify the school first thing tomorrow morning, but for now you should tell us why you left." Professor Gilmore said taping off her bandage.

"I got a phone call from Toshi, saying he was in trouble and to meet him at the docks." Athea replied instantly.

Jet face palmed and shook his head. "Didn't they seem a bit wrong?"

"Yea, but its Toshi, I can trust him….At least I hope I can." Athea replied with that last part underneath her breath.

"And what about earlier today, when you almost got hit by a car, what was that about?" Albert asked.

"I sensed someone was following me." She said looking at Albert.

"It wasn't me. Besides you were looking in the opposite direction from where I pulled you out of traffic." Albert retorted.

"Then who was it that I sensed?" Athea asked.

"It may have been Toshi." Joe replied.

"Why would he be stalking me? He was standing next to Mizuki the entire time, all of our classes are together and we hang out every…day…oh shit." Athea realized it too late.

"Sorry kiddo, but Toshi is stalking you." GB said.

"Watch it with that kiddo stuff, I am older than you." Athea spat.

Everyone laughed at me. "Maybe in spirit you are, but physically you aren't."

I blushed. "And what the hell is that suppose to mean?"

"I—uh…well…I just mean you're very perky?" GB said and then instantly regretted it.

"You should've counted your chickens before laying your eggs 007." Jet said as GB walked out of the room with a knot in his head from Franny and a hand print on his face from Athea.

They decided to talk about this incident later because Athea still needed to eat and people needed to get some sleep. However, neither Athea nor Albert could sleep. Albert sat outside on the deck while Athea rinsed off her dishes. She stared at him through the pane of glass whispery, taking a deep breath and sucking up her pride she joined him outside.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"My head hurts, but I can live with that." She replied. "Listen Albert I'm sorry for being angry with you today. You were just worried and I took it out of proportion."

"I'm sorry too." He said.

"You don't have to apologize, since you all ready did." Athea said with a gentle smile.

Albert blushed remembering what he had said earlier tonight. "What…else do you remember?"

Athea evilly smirked and nudged him in the arm. "I remember everything."

He stuttered, "Oh r-really, th-that's good I guess." Athea placed her hand on the spot where it was before. They sat in silence until Albert inched closer and used his metallic hand to caress the side of her face, she leaned into it, brushing her lips against the cold steel and then glanced up at him through her long eye lashes. His heart skipped a beat and inching closer until they were nose to nose. As Athea slowly closed her eyes Albert locked his lips on hers and took a minute to drown in the sweet tasting chap-stick. Breaking apart he leaned his forehead on hers and drew her into a hug. As tears welded up in his eyes Athea kissed his cheek and held him as he cried. She hummed a low and sweet melody, but then something sparked.

Athea's breathing became labored and then a coughing fit enabled her to let go of Albert.

"Athea?" He took one look at her painful expression and immediately yelled for the professor. "Athea, what's wrong?" His hands grabbed the sides of her face as he stared down at her agonized face. When she tried to speak all that escaped were painful gasps of air.

"004 what's going on?" Professor Gilmore asked.

"I don't know Athea just started having an attack." Albert replied frantically. "She can't breath."

"Lay her down on her back; I need to get my kit." Albert did as he was told and laid her on her back. He moved stray hair out of her face and held her hand to his chest. The glazed and agonized look in her eyes when she starred up at him almost made him break down, but he knew in these situations he needed to be strong. By surprise, blood started to trickle down her cheek and in panic he yelled for the Professor who had just found his kit. This time though everyone else joined them on the deck to see the tragedy unfold. Just as Professor Gilmore hopped onto the deck, Athea's hand went limp and terror struck Albert's heart.

"No, no, no Athea, open your eyes." Albert shook her head gently, but nothing.

Franny started crying in Joe's chest, while the men looked down saddened by the sudden loss. Albert, however, wasn't going to give up. He breathed into her and before he could start pumping her chest Professor Gilmore stepped in and did it for him. In sync they did this for over five minutes and right before the professor was about to give up Athea started coughing.

"Get her to my lab immediately 004."

Without even hesitating Albert picked her up, with a gust of wind they were gone and at the Dolphin. Franny and the others tried to get Albert to get some sleep, but he wouldn't budge from his seat. He waited outside the medical bay for three hours until Professor Gilmore walked out with exhaustion in his baggy eyes.

"Professor Gilmore, how is she?" He asked.

"She'll live, but we'll have to watch her for awhile." He replied removing his surgical mask. "Did Athea perhaps sing something?"

Albert thought for a minute, "She was humming before her attack happened."

"I see." Professor Gilmore scratched his head. "I don't know how to tell her this."

"Tell her what?"

"When she sings or hums it triggers a device in her throat, this device turns on the weapon that has been installed." He replied.

"What you mean in her throat?"

"Precisely, I suspect that this power is like a sonic wave, much like those old tornado alarms, but destructive. We won't know the full potential until she's 100% better." Professor Gilmore sighed. "Unfortunately, that may be awhile."

"Why?"

"She must've felt it switch on and with you being so close she must've fought it and that caused the sonic wave to go backward. So it destroyed most of her throat and lungs, which explains the blood."

Albert's face turned pale.

"Don't worry my boy, I was able to reconstruct her throat and repair her lungs. She'll live." Professor Gilmore said, but the saddened burden in Albert's heart didn't lift.

"Sorry Professor, but this is good news, bad news type thing." Albert said looking defeated. "Can I see her?"

Professor Gilmore nodded and stood out friend's way.

Standing over her he traced the oxygen mask and tubes leading to and from her nose. The gauze around her neck scared him.

"I am so sorry sweetie." He said as tears fell down his cheeks because he knew what this meant for her. She would never be able to sign again, not even hum or whistle. He kissed her forehead and sat down next to her his head in his hands.

A/N-Yea I know it's depressing and filled with drama.

If there are any questions please send them in the review box…thing.


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